Manual lumbar in my '04 FX4 lvl2 broke!!!

[Stangman]

OK, I hopped in the truck this morning (2004 Ranger FX4 Level 2 w/ the highback buckets), and went to get comfortable in the seat and I heard an awful sound and my seat caved in. Turns out my manual lumbar adjustment had just shit the bed.

So, I've already got back issues to make matters worse so this isn't helping.

It sounded like there was plastic in there that crumbled.. has anyone had these seats apart to know what goes on inside them to make the lumbar work/not work?

I need to get this fixed asap as it's my daily driver. I did some internet salvage yard browsing and no salvage yards around here seem to have an identical seat that I can find.

If I could even find a lower mileage seat that's the wrong color I could swap the cloth, since mine is black w/ red inserts.

Any other suggestions?

 

[bmerr98]

Had the same issue in my 1998. Just got in there and did some repairs to the seat cushion suspension and the manual lumbar support. The wheel you adjust the support with draws a cable in and out to squeeze or release about six plastic ribs...well, kinda hard to describe at 3 in the morning, but I'd guess the cable housing has popped out of it's restraint groove on the plastic lumbar support thing. It reminds me of an accordian.

What I did was push the cable back in place, carefully drill a pilot hole through both sides of the groove above the cable housing and put a screw in to hold the cable housing in the groove. Works good as new. This was done just a couple weeks ago, so I can't guarantee how long this repair will last, but so far so good. I'm 6'4" 275 lbs, so my seat has it's work cut out for it. My seats are out of an Explorer Sport, but probably of similar design. I can sympathize with the back troubles too. Hope this helps!